New Song "Moving On" - Looking for Mix Feedback

[chrisharris]

...the thing that really has me liking the idea is the immediate tuning changes and the digital capo. Man, I can see situations live where that would be really sweet, especially the tuning thing...my originals are pretty varied with tunings and capo...i have a couple of songs in DADGAD, one with drop D, and one or two with a capo. Being able to use that one guitar to do it all would be pretty amazing. It's got me thinking

It's very handy, and it absolutely works as advertised. It's a little odd if you're playing at really low volume, because if you can hear the sound of the actual strings on the guitar mixing with the totally different notes coming out of the amp, it's really weird...but it's really not an issue playing live through a P.A.

You know, when I first got the Variax acoustic, I ran it through my acoustic amp and was instantly disappointed with the sound....I bought the thing sight unseen and had only heard clips online, and it sounded pretty flat through my amp. But the first time I played it through a P.A., it was instantly the best live acoustic guitar sound I'd ever gotten. Not only does it sound like a mic'd acoustic, it sounds like 13 different mic'd acoustics in well treated rooms.

You'll love the 12 string sound if it's the same model that's on my acoustic.

Sorry to hijack your thread, lol.

 

[squibble94]

Awesome awesome awesome stuff dude. I always look forward to hearing your posts. This one is screaming "commercial" to me. You should send this to some TV Companies. I can definitely see this being on a JC Penny Summer-Wear ad. Great mix (both processed and unprocessed). I actually like the dry ukelele, but it sounds super compressed. Back off on it during the intro, but compress it during the denser stuff. Automation can really help this song out. The drums are a bit loose here and there. That's about it from me. Great job!

 

[dewhitt]

Thanks squibble, I appreciate that very much. I like the automation idea...and much to my dismay, I just went back and double checked the uke track and found that I DO have a compressor on there, so yeah, I can pull that off for the intro and see if that helps. For the drums, are you hearing looseness in general or specific spots? The one tom fill that leads into the last chorus bothers me, but I've been trying to leave it alone JC Penny, huh? At least give me Abercrombie or something...lol.

Best,

Dave

 

[Greg_L]

I listened to the un-mastered version.

Pretty good mix. The vocals get a little buried once everything is piled on. Everything else seems okay. If I'm really gonna nitpick, the timing is pretty rough in several spots. When you do choppy guitars over a simple boom-whack drum beat, you gotta lock that shit together. There's power and drive in locked-in parts. It sounds disheveled when it isn't. There's a few spots where this comes apart and it really takes away the flow of the song. I don't know if this is commercial, or a hit or anything, but it's awfully sugary. I need to brush my teeth after listening to this.

 

[Tobe]

Great effort Dave, love the confidence of the vocal.

Perhaps because you mixed it to suit, the compressed version sounds clearer/better/(and obviously)louder. The harp is much better in the compressed version. Apparently I need to be far more liberal with my rep before I can give you more

 

[dewhitt]

Thanks, Greg, this probably falls under the category of give an inch and take a mile, but if there is any chance you'd be willing to point out the specific spots where those timing issues really bugged you, I'd certainly be grateful. I'm probably too close to this and have heard it too much now, cause I'm not hearing too much off with timing other than the one fill leading back to the end chorus. I'm not sure how much I can do to fix those issues now anyway, but maybe if I rerecord guitar and bass I can try to lock it up better. This is another one of those situations where Paul played drums over my existing track, so locking it up probably requires me to retrack the other stuff after the fact. Anyway, thanks for the listen, and sorry for the sugary sweetness

Tobe, thank you sir, I appreciate it. The harp was such a last minute addition...I'm still not used to it at all, but I think it's going to be good in the long run once I'm used to it. Just trying to keep things interesting

Best,

Dave

 

[Tobe]

As well as the harp, the mastering also makes the vocal clearer, and not buried (it is buried a bit in the uncompressed mix)

P.S. Don't clean up problems you can't hear for yourself... that will only take the life out of your material. The timing is good and Greg is a fussy drummer...

 

[squibble94]

Thanks squibble, I appreciate that very much. I like the automation idea...and much to my dismay, I just went back and double checked the uke track and found that I DO have a compressor on there, so yeah, I can pull that off for the intro and see if that helps. For the drums, are you hearing looseness in general or specific spots? The one tom fill that leads into the last chorus bothers me, but I've been trying to leave it alone JC Penny, huh? At least give me Abercrombie or something...lol.

Best,

Dave

Hahaha this didn't strike me as an Abercrombie commercial. It's not sexy enough. Very Summery though. The timing is where Greg said it was. In the boom whack parts. The transition from the intro to the verse was a bit shaky. Also, I noticed these drums don't sound as high quality as the drums in your other songs. They have a kind of recorded-straight-out-of-the-mixer-at-a-live-show sound.

 

[gcolbert]

What a difference in the uke. Did you change the EQ as well or just drop the compression. It sounds so much brighter and clearer. I wish I had a sense of rythum as good as Greg's (Greg_L), but lacking his talent I thought it sounded right on. Loved the tune and the concept.